1. On January 19, 1946, Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in the Far East, signed and issued a Special Notice and the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, announcing to establish the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. The tribunal, which is formed by 11 judges respectively from China, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Philippines, is in charge of the verdict of the war criminals of Japan during World War II. On April 29, 1946, the International Military Tribunal initiated a public prosecution on war crimes against 28 Japanese Class-A War Criminals including Hideki Tojo. In the end, 25 defendants were found guilty of war crimes as Shumei Okawa was confirmed to be suffering from a mental breakdown, and Yosuke Matsuoka and Osami Nagano died of natural causes before the trial started. Seven of the Class-A war criminals including Hideki Tojo, Kenji Doihara and Seishiro Itagaki were sentenced to death. 16 Class-A war criminals including Kiichiro Hiranuma, Kuniaki Koiso and Yoshijiro Umezu were sentenced to life imprisonment. Shigenori Togo was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mamoru Shigemitsu was sentenced to seven years in prison. On December 23, 1948, the Class-A war criminals including Hideki Tojo, who was sentenced to death, were hanged at Sugamo prison in Tokyo.

2. After the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, Japan recovered its national sovereignty. The Japanese Government also began to pardon war criminals and restore their reputation and treatment. On August 3, 1953, Japan's Lower House of Parliament issued a resolution to release gradually the 13 Class-A war criminals who were still serving sentences (the other five died in the prison during their sentence.) After being released from prison, Mamoru Shigemitsu also served as Japanese Foreign Minister and Okinori Kaya served as Japanese Minister of Justice. The descendants of Class-A war criminals also enjoy compensations from the government just as descendants of other war dead. In February 1966, Japan's Ministry of Welfare proposed to enshrine 14 Class-A war criminals into the Yasukuni Shrine, but it was vetoed by the then Chief Priest of the shrine. In October, 1978, after the new Chief Priest of the Yasukuni Shrine took office, the 14 Class-A war criminals were accepted by the shrine secretly. The new Chief Priest said that it was allowed by the Japanese Government.

3. Except for Toshio Shiratori, all the other 13 Class-A war criminals enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine had directly participated in the war of aggression against China or made a policy of aggression against China. Heitaro Kimura and Akira Muto were respectively responsible for the massacres in Myanmar and the Philippines. Details as follows:

Hideki Tojo

Tojo was born into a warlord family in Japan's Iwate Prefecture in 1884. He is the son of an army general who was one of the founders of the Japanese army and a military commander during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Deeply influenced by his family, Tojo is a man with strong Japanese militarism. Tojo took part in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 in Northeast China. He graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in 1905, and later the Japanese War College in 1915. Tojo was promoted as major general in 1933 and served as chief of the military survey department within the Army Ministry, during which period of time he was in charge of the investigation of the September 18th Incident. Taking the opportunity for the investigation, Tojo ground down those political parties that were unsatisfied with the military and strengthened the power of military in Japanese politics.

Tojo served as chief of police affairs of the Kwantung army in 1935, and worked actively to crack down on anti-Japanese activities in northeast China. Two years later, he was promoted as lieutenant general and became the chief of staff of the Kwantung army for his achievements in suppressing Chinese people. After the Lugouqiao Incident (the Marco Polo Bridge Incident), the Kwantung army occupied Chengde, Zhangjiakou and Datong, in north China and established a puppet provincial government within the region.

Tojo was appointed vice minister of war in May 1938 after returning to Tokyo and minister of war in 1940. As minister of war, Tojo announced Nazi-like war operational instructions to the Japanese army, asking soldiers to "be willing to die under the order for war" "No freedom should be regarded as the ordinary affairs." In October 1941, he was appointed Prime Minister and took the portfolios of war, foreign affair, education and commerce and industry, assuming arbitrary power. He advocated an aggressive foreign policy, occupying the whole of China and establishing the so-called Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. He also strengthened control over the economy and suppressed dissidents, making Japan a complete militaristic state.

When becoming aware that Japan would not win the war, Tojo's administration was fiercely criticized by Japanese domestic forces in 1944. On July 18 the same year, Tojo was forced to step down. Shortly after the war, Tojo was seized as a war criminal. He attempted suicide while awaiting trial. Condemned by the International Military Tribunal as the number one war criminal for crimes against humanity, he was hanged at Sugamo prison in Tokyo in December 1948.

Koki Hirota

Koki Hirota was born in 1878 in Fukuoka, Japan. He graduated from Tokyo University's School of Law in 1906 and later joint Japan's foreign ministry. A career diplomat, he served as director of Europe and America Department within the Foreign Ministry, ambassador to Russia and Foreign Minister. He advocated tough diplomacy towards China. In 1935, he promulgated the notorious Hirota Sangensoku (the Three Principles by Hirota) as the definitive statement of Japan's position towards China. The three principles were the establishment of a Japan–China–Manchukuo bloc, the organization of a Sino-Japanese common front against the spread of communism, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities within China. He became prime minister in 1936. His regime saw increased military spending, government interference in the economy, intensified aggression in China, and the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Hirota is the principal plotter of the Lugouqiao Incident and schemed the establishment of the puppet Wang Ching-Wei regime within China.

Hirota was arrested as a war criminal after the war. In December 1948, he was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo and hanged at Sugamo prison. Hirota was the only Japanese civil official sentenced to death after the war.

Kenji Doihara

Doihara was born in 1883 in a military family in Okayama Prefecture. He was the spymaster during Japan's war of aggression against China. In 1913, Doihara came to China as a staff of Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, serving as an assistant of the then Japanese spymaster in China and his more than 30 years of spy career in China. He had lived in China for a long time and contacted with the Chinese people of all social classes. Therefore, he can speak fluent Chinese and was well known as an "old China hands" within the spy circle of the Japanese army. He was also a cadre of Japanese spy plotting in China. During his time in China, Doihara tried to incite Chinese warlords for civil war in the aim of helping Japan's invasion of China.

In March 1928, Doihara served as the counselor to Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin, but later he plotted the assassination of Zhang by a train explosion. In 1931, Doihara was made head of special services with the Kwantung army. He was one of the masterminds behind the "September 18 incident" (Mukden Incident). Later, Doihara tricked the last Emperor of Qing Dynasty Pu Yi to Northeast China to found the puppet Manchukuo. In January 1932, Doihara became the head of the Harbin special service agency to suppress Chinese anti-Japanese invasion activities.

In 1935, Doihara was sent to North China to incite Chinese regional warlords to establish another puppet regime in China. In 1937 after the Lugouqiao Incident, he commanded Japanese army to invade North China. From 1938, he worked to establish puppet Chinese regime within the Japanese occupied provinces. In 1941, he was promoted as army general.

After the war, Doihara was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo and sentenced to death. In December 1948, he was hanged at Sugamo prison.

Iwane Matsui

Iwane Matsui was born in Japan's Aichi Prefecture. He was the arch criminal for the Nanjing Massacre. He has served as head of Mukden Special Services Agency, commanding officer of the 35th Brigade, lieutenant of Kwantung army, general staff and general officer commanding 11th Division, among other posts. He attained the rank of general in the Japanese Army in 1933.

Matsui had stayed in China for 13 years plotting and commanding Japanese army to invade China. On August 13, 1937, he became the commander of the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Force. Matsui planned the November 1937 attacks on Shanghai and Nanjing. He was the commanding officer of the Japanese expeditionary force responsible for the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.

In December 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East found him guilty of war crimes, and he was hanged at Sugamo prison that December.

Heitaro Kimura

Heitaro Kimura was born in Tokyo in 1888. He attained the rank of lieutenant general with the 32nd Division in 1939, stationing troops in Yanzhou City, North China's Shandong Province to suppress anti-Japanese activities within the region. During that period of time, he ordered to slaughter great number of Chinese people. He was made chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in 1940 and appointed vice minister of war. He helped plan the war against China as well as the Pacific War when acting as vice minister of war. In 1944, he became the commander-in-chief of the Burma Area Army. He brutalized allied prisoners of war and civilians by using them for the construction of the Burma-Siam railway. Kimura was accused as the "Burma butcher" by the procurator during the Tokyo tribunal.

In December 1948, Kimura was sentenced to death by the tribunal and hanged as a war criminal at Sugamo prison.

Seishiro Itagaki

Seishiro Itagaki was born in Iwate-ken Prefecture in 1885. Influenced by his family, he was determined to serve the army when he was very young. He fought in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. From 1917 to 1919, Itagaki served as staff of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, collecting information in China's Kunming City and Hankou City. Since 1922, he was commanding officer of the 33rd Regiment in China, plotting conspiracy in China. He was seen as one of the most famous three "old China hands" together with Kenji Doihara and Rensuke Isogai in Japanese army. He regarded China's northeast region as the lifeline of Japan and advocated actively invasion of China. As a Japanese military officer in the Kwantung Army from 1929 to 1934, he and Kanji Ishiwara planned the Mukden Incident in September 18, 1931 and helped the establishment of the puppet Manchukuo regime in 1932.

Itagaki served as the top advisor of Manchukuo's government and army. He incited the independence activity of Inner Mongolia in 1936. In 1937, he was appointed as chief of the special service in Mukden. After the Lugouqiao Incident, he was sent to North China to command war of aggression against China in North China and Central China.

In May, 1938, Itagaki returned to Japan and was appointed minister of war to assist the Japanese Prime Minister plotting to expand the war of aggression against China and help to establish Wang Ching-Wei puppet regime in China. From September 1939 to July 1941, he served as chief of staff of the China Expeditionary Army to directly command the aggression war against China. He was responsible directly for the savage activities of the Japanese army during the invasion of China. He also served as the Chief Chosen Army in Korea in 1941, Commander-in-Chief of the 17th Area Army in Korea in 1945, and Commander-in-Chief of 7th Area Army in Singapore later that same year.

He was condemned to death and hanged as a war criminal in December 1948 by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Akira Muto

Akira Muto was born in 1892 in Kumamoto Prefecture. He came to China in 1933 to collect intelligence and acted as the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in 1936, plotting the independence activity of Inner Mongolia. During the war of occupying Nanjing, Muto was vice chief of staff of the Central China Area Army. His order that Japanese army can camp anywhere in Nanjing is directly responsible for the Nanjing Massacre. In July 1938, Muto was appointed as vice chief of staff North China Area Army, commanding Japanese army's mop-up operations in the region. He also promoted actively the war against the United States. In 1942, he became the general officer commanding the 2nd Imperial Guards Division, Singapore-Sumatra, and later the chief of staff of the 14th Area Army in the Philippines in 1944. He ordered the massacre of the civilians and war prisoners of the Allied army, causing the deaths of about 100,000 civilians in the Philippines. He was also responsible for atrocities in Indonesia.

After World War II, Muto was arrested and charged with war crimes. He was hanged on December 1948 at Sugamo prison.

Yosuke Matsuoka

Yosuke Matsuoka was born on March 4, 1880 in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He studied law and graduated from the University of Oregon in the United States in 1900. He then returned to Japan and worked with the Foreign Service for 18 years. He became director of the South Manchurian Railroad Company in 1921. He was a spokesman for the expansionist Japanese policy and an active advocator that "Manchu and Mongolia are lifelines of Japan." In 1930, Matsuoka was elected as congressman. In 1932, he assumed as chief representative of Japan in League of Nations. He led the Japanese delegation out of the League of Nations in 1933 due to Japan was isolated as its invasion of China's Northeast region. He was appointed foreign minister in July 1940, and signed agreement to ally with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In early 1941, after visiting Germany and Italy, he signed a five-year peace pact with the former Soviet Union representing of Japan.

Matsuoka was indicted as a war criminal after World War II but died before the end of his trial in June 1946.

Osami Nagano

Osami Nagano was born in Kochi in 1880. He graduated from Japan's Naval Academy in 1900. Nagano has served as naval attaché to the United States, Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, Minister of the Navy under Koki Hirota in 1936, Commander in Chief of the Fleet in 1937. In 1941, Nagano became Chief of the Naval General Staff. In September 1941, Nagano advocated his militarism views in an imperial conference that "If we don't wage war, our nation will perish. War shows the spirit of protecting our nation. If the spirit does not perish, even if we lose the war, Japan would rise up again." Nagano helped to draw up the plan and signed the order of attack against the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

After war, Nagano was captured by the Allies in 1945 and indicted as a Class A war criminal. He died in 1947 while awaiting trial.

Yoshijiro Umezu

Yoshijiro Umezu was born in Oita Prefecture in 1882. He had joint the Russian-Japanese War in 1904. He had also served as military attaché to Germany and Denmark as well as the final Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, among other posts.

Umezu was appointed as commander of the Japanese China Garrison Army in 1934. On June 9, 1935, Umezu signed an agreement with He Yinqin, an official with the KMT government. The agreement, known as the He-Umezu Agreement, gave recognition to the Japanese occupation of Hebei and Chahar (now a part of Inner Mongolia), preparing for the full aggression war against China. In 1936, Umezu served as vice minister of war. He took part in the plotting of the Lugouqiao Incident and was in direct command of Japan's invasion of China. From 1939 to 1944, Umezu served as commander-in-chief of the Kwangtung Army, practicing cruel colonial ruling in Northeast China. He became the army chief of staff in 1944 and continued the aggression war in China and the Pacific war.

Umezu opposed surrender and the Potsdam Proclamation in August 1945; he believed that the military should fight on, forcing the Allies to sustain a heavy losses. He was reluctant to participate the signing of the Japanese instrument of surrender. Under the pressure of the Japanese emperor, he presented the surrender ceremony representing Japanese army aboard the American battleship "Missouri" in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

After war, Umezu was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1948, and died the following year while serving his sentence at Sugamo prison.

Kiichiro Hiranuma

Hiranuma was born in 1867 in Okayama Prefecture. He was once Minister of Justice, and was very powerful in judicial circle. Hiranuma created a right-wing group the Kokuhonsha. From 1923 to 1932, he was president of Nihon University. In 1936, Hiranuma was appointed President of the Privy Council. He was appointed prime minister in January 1939. In August of the same year, Stalin and Hitler signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Hiranuma resigned taking the blame. He held the view that fascist state is the most ideal state model. After World War II, he was given a life sentence by International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Hiranuma was paroled in early 1952 because of illness, and died shortly afterwards.

Kuniaki Koiso

Kuniaki Koiso was born in Tochigi Prefecture in 1880 and has served as army secretary, chief of staff of the Kwantung army, commander in chief in Korea. In 1939, he served in the cabinet as Minister of Colonial Affairs. In 1942, he was appointed governor-general of Korea and has repeatedly suppressed anti-Japanese movements in Korea. He was given a sentence of life imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and died at Sugamo prison while serving his sentence.

Shigenori Togo

Shigenori Togo was born in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1882. He graduated from the Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University in 1908 and later joined the Foreign Ministry. In 1913, he was Japanese consulate at Mukden in Northeast China. In 1937, Togo was appointed ambassador to Germany. The following year, he was transferred to the former Soviet Union as ambassador. In 1941, Togo was appointed as foreign minister and a member of the Japanese cabinet, and has taken part in the plan to start the Pacific War. In 1945, he was appointed as Kantaro Suzuki administration's foreign minister, dealing with Japan's defeat affairs. After World War II he was sentenced to 20 years in prison by International Military Tribunal for the Far East and died in an American military hospital in 1950 while serving his sentence.

Toshio Shiratori

Toshio Shiratori was born in Chiba Prefecture in 1887. He has served as director of Information Bureau under the Foreign Ministry and ambassador to Italy. He had helped to establish an alliance among Germany, Italy and Japan. He has been in charge of Taisei Yokusankai, and worked for Yokusankai system under fascist dictatorship, and advocating expulsion of white people. Shiratori was sentenced to life imprisonment as a war criminal after World War II. In 1949, he died at Sugamo prison while serving his sentence.